Francis Ford Coppola has been working on Megalopolis for longer than its leading lady, Nathalie Emmanuel, has been alive. This week, the long-gestating sci-fi epic premieres at the Cannes Film Festival, marking a major career milestone for them both: while Coppola, 85, has spent a rumoured $120 million of his own money bringing the project to life (courting some controversy along the way), Emmanuel, 35, is on the verge of a major breakthrough after years as a memorable supporting actor in some of the most recognisable franchises (Game of Thrones, Fast and Furious) of recent years.

“I almost feel like I’m unqualified to speak about the life of this film, because it’s been a full 40 years in the making,” Emmanuel tells Vogue from London ahead of her arrival in France. For the British actor, this moment, as the film gears up to meet its first audience, is both “exciting” and “nerve-wracking”. It’s been nearly five years since she first met Coppola to discuss the ambitious scope of Megalopolis and her involvement in it, yet very few people know anything beyond its very basic plot description: an architect tries to rebuild a utopian city called New Rome after a disaster destroys it.

The experience of making Megalopolis was unlike anything Emmanuel had done before – and it undoubtedly marked a jumping-off point for the kinds of prestige projects that could change the course of her career. Here, before Megalopolis’s world-premiere screening on 16 May, she shares how she became involved in the film, the details of her character, and what going to the Cannes Film Festival means to her.
Is this your first time going to the festival?

It’s not – I actually went to Cannes in 2018 when they screened a short film that I produced, and I went to a couple of screenings too, but this is my first time going as someone who is in the official selection. It’s slightly surreal. Watching [movies] on that epic screen was kind of amazing.
Everyone’s extremely excited to see this film after so long. How have you tried to describe it?

[Coppola] is not a conformist by any means, and I’ve never seen anything quite like this before. It’s really trying to break barriers and ask big, bold questions. It’s a very artistic and experimental movie.
Let’s go back to the beginning. How did you get involved with it?

[Coppola and I] had an initial meeting that was very informal, and then the pandemic happened. When it did kind of come around again, towards the end of 2021, I ended up having a Zoom with Francis. We played, like, a theatre game, and he asked me to choose a line from a song or a movie, then he just said, “Okay, say it in all these different ways…” Like the punchline of a joke, or like you’re breaking bad news to somebody. We talked about the script, and he told me a bit about the character, and then I got the call to say that they’d like me to do it.

Did the script come to you under lock and key?

It didn’t, I just got it in an email. But it was quite hefty.

So what can you tell us about your character, Julia?

She’s the daughter of the mayor, played by Giancarlo Esposito, [who’s] very traditional in his approach to his job and life. He dotes on her and they’re very close. She’s actually incredibly smart but kind of bored, and so she’s out partying rather than applying herself to anything. She finds Caesar, played by Adam Driver, and suddenly she’s being pulled between these two intelligent and powerful men. She’s trying to have agency, but at the cost of the relationship she has with her father. She’s definitely somebody whose experiences I can understand.

Did that help you make sense of her?

We live in a patriarchal system, where any kind of voice or agency is not always given. There were obviously times in my life where I absolutely felt not listened to, or like I’ve not been heard. I just like that idea of stepping outside of what is wanted for you or expected of you. I think what I kind of come to realise is that maybe I actually have much more agency in life than Julia does.

You’re no stranger to big-budget projects. From the outside, so much has been made of this film’s budget.
Did working on this feel like making a blockbuster?

I can’t really compare this to anything I’ve ever done. The budget of it is hefty, but it definitely still felt like a kind of independent film, because most of the effects Francis tried to make were practical. Francis really cared about making things real. A lot of this I was doing in real time, in a real set that I could touch and interact with. So it doesn’t feel like the same [as those other projects]. But what is a blockbuster anymore? That’s put into question with a movie like this.

Another project with a legend you have coming this year is The Killer by John Woo, right?

I’ve been in the action space for a minute, and it’s kind of amazing to be working with one of the innovators of action movies. Similarly to Francis, at this stage in John’s life, you feel like the stakes are so high. He wants to remake his own movie and not many people ever do that. It felt like an incredibly exciting challenge, but an intimidating one, naturally. I’ve never been given that much freedom, so that was a new experience for me too.

That’s exciting. Well, it’s not long until your face will be beamed onto that gigantic Cannes screen. It feels like the perfect place for Megalopolis to debut.

I think so. It’s a crowd that will appreciate an auteur like him. I mean, we finished shooting that in March last year. I’m excited to finally celebrate what we all made together. [Source]